A stock recurve or longbow is built to shoot well on a square range in daylight. It’s not built to sit quiet in a treestand for three hours or keep an arrow loaded while you track a deer closing the distance. That gap comes down to your bowhunting setup, and it doesn’t take much to close it.

Here are the five upgrades I run on every trad bow I take hunting:

• String silencers — Cut the string and limb vibration that tips deer off before your arrow arrives. Beaver fur or rubber both work, placement is what matters most.
• Limb silencers for recurves — Stop the limb slap that makes recurves sound sharper than longbows, and smooths out the shot in the process.
• A quality strap-on bow quiver — Adds mass-dampening that quiets the whole bow, not just your arrow storage. I run Eagle’s Flight Archery’s Apache for the quieting benefit without the bulk.
• A wind feather — The original wind checker, always on, no batteries, tells you exactly which way your scent is drifting.
• Stop the Drop arrow holder — Keeps your arrow loaded and in place through a let-down, mounts with Velcro so you can swap it between bows in seconds.

I walk through the install, placement, and why each one matters for a real hunting situation in the full video below.

Already running some of these or have other tips? Drop a comment in the video and let me know what else you’d add to a traditional bow hunting setup.